PROFESSOR Sir Liam Donaldson, the Government's chief medical officer, is due to give evidence to the Neale inquiry today.

The UK's top health official is the highest-profile witness to attend the inquiry into the Richard Neale scandal since it started seven weeks ago.

But because the Government has said that the inquiry should be held behind closed doors, the Press and public will be unable to hear any of the professor's testimony.

The inquiry was set up to investigate how the NHS dealt with the large number of complaints made against Mr Neale, a former consultant gynaecological surgeon at the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

Mr Neale, who lives near Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire, was struck off in 2000 after the General Medical Council found him guilty of botching operations, lying to patients and altering medical records.

Campaigners representing more than 250 former patients of Mr Neale are furious that the surgeon was able to continue operating on British women despite being struck off in Canada.

Prof Donaldson was general manager of the former Northern and Yorkshire regional health authority in 1995, when bosses at the Friarage decided to get rid of Mr Neale by giving him a pay-off and a reference.

Mr Neale went on to botch more operations in the NHS and private sector before he was suspended.

Graham Maloney, advisor to the Action and Support Group for Medical Victims of Richard Neale, said: "We believe that guilty people are being hidden. All we want from this inquiry is the truth about what really happened."

The Department of Health has previously stressed that Sir Liam was never in a position of direct accountability for Mr Neale's conduct